Olympi Tae-Kwon-Do

Kenpodoc

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I was looking forward to watching olympic TKD but was unfortunately disappointed. Help me understand why we have a sport that involves bouncing up and down with your arms down. Why no head punches? It seems to me that if we allowed scoring with head punches the kicking would remain important but that defense would return to the sport.

I took a year of TKD back in the late 70's, we concentrated on kicking but still punched. I still respect those guys and thought it was a great art.

Respectfully,

Jeff
 

MichiganTKD

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First, WTF Tae Kwon Do does not allow head punching during free fighting. You want head punching? Take up or watch boxing.

Second, it's a safety issue. Punching to the head or face can be very dangerous. Olympic TKD is about scoring points, not breaking the guy's teeth.

Finally, punching to face is easy. Just stick out your fist and the guy will run into it. Olympic Tae Kwon Do is about excitement and using difficult technique. And since we don't use hand pads, I don't recommend punching someone in the face with a bare fist. They did that 100 years ago in boxing. People got seriously hurt and killed.
 
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Kenpodoc

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My confusion is that you allow kicking to the head so not punchig to the head can't be a saftey issue. I don't think that 1 point punches to the head will stop the kicking, just stop allowing people to keep their hands down and end up chest to chest with no point scored.

Thanks for responding,

Jeff
 
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Kenpodoc

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Sorry, I didn't finish my thought.

I don't find punching to the head easy if your opponent is defending against punches to the head. I feel that the kicking techniques would be more exciting if the risk of head punches remained.

No disrepect intended, I'm just trying to understand,

Jeff
 

TigerWoman

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Kenpodoc, From what I understand WTF rules---BTW, Terry knows better than me, his school competes nationally.

... is that you can't kick to the face or punch to the face. I noticed that none of the Olympic competitors wore mouth guards. We never fight with our hands down....one up, one down in my school.

We are WTF. In our sparring class practice we kick to the head and punch to the head, but we have football style cage guards. (which don't prevent sometimes toes coming up through the bottom btw) That cage guard with the head gear is hot but much preferred to wearing mouthguards and getting accidently swiped with a foot. I've gotten crescent/axe kicks to my nose and a bloody lip to mention a few "accidents" even wearing a mouthguard. One guy quit because he had eye damage from a errant punch (understandably). We also use gloves because those cageguards are knarley to punch.

I am not impressed with Olympic style either. Way too much respect maybe and not much action. Maybe they should assign offensive and give a time limit. Alot of double jump front kicks, ,not many other jump kicks, not much spinning. But not too much TV coverage either. Hope it gets better for the next weight classes but usually the fly, featherweights are faster. And then my VCR didn't go today so I didn't get any of the probable 20 min. they aired. arrgh!

Yes, if they were guarding for their head, like most of us really do, they would have a little more to think about.
TW

Just saw the video posted below re Lopez kicking to the face. Kicking to face legal, got that.
 

Flaminchiten

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"Second, it's a safety issue. Punching to the head or face can be very dangerous. Olympic TKD is about scoring points, not breaking the guy's teeth."

Don't they award more points for a kick to the head?
1. One point for a strike to the trunk protector
2. Two points for a strike to the face.
3. One additional point is awarded if the attack knocks the opponent down.
4. You can also win by Knockout.

Didn't the American (Lopez I think) who won in 2000 win with a back kick to the face? You can watch the video of the 2000 match here. http://www.nbcolympics.com/taekwondo/index.html


"Finally, punching to face is easy. Just stick out your fist and the guy will run into it"

Now I know how to defend against a TKD'er just hold my fist out and let them run into it! :ultracool
 

Zepp

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Kenpodoc said:
My confusion is that you allow kicking to the head so not punchig to the head can't be a saftey issue. I don't think that 1 point punches to the head will stop the kicking, just stop allowing people to keep their hands down and end up chest to chest with no point scored.

There are Tae Kwon Doists that feel the same as you do, albeit probably a minority of us.

Personally, I wouldn't really complain if Olympic Tae Kwon Do was replaced with Olympic Kickboxing with the rules being something similar to K-1.

I think the rules of sport Tae Kwon Do are what they are because this is what S.Korea thought it would take to get it into the Olympics. And because less violent sports tend to attract more people (and appeal more to parents).
 

bignick

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like one of the commentators said...that's the sport of taekwondo...not the art...

any taekwondo i've ever seen practices all varieties of hand strikes...most just prefer to practice them in a more controlled enviroment than during sparring...

and if we allowed punching to the head and it became a more viable scoring option what would happen when taekwondo started to look more like boxing, people would complain about the lack of kicking...

korea's martial art history involves strong focus on the feet as weapons (tae kyon, tae kwon do...)
 

CanuckMA

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bignick said:
and if we allowed punching to the head and it became a more viable scoring option what would happen when taekwondo started to look more like boxing, people would complain about the lack of kicking...

You've obviously have not seen many kickboxing or Muay Thai matches.
 

TigerWoman

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CanuckMA said:
You've obviously have not seen many kickboxing or Muay Thai matches.

We're talking about Olympic Taekwondo and there are no kicks below the belt. We're not comparing other disciplines to TKD in this thread. TW
 

Marginal

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bignick said:
and if we allowed punching to the head and it became a more viable scoring option what would happen when taekwondo started to look more like boxing, people would complain about the lack of kicking...

This argument's a popular one, and I've always found it peculiar. (Not to pick on you bignick, it's just a common view I've seen lurking about various MA boards) I find it strange just because it seems to operate on presumptions that are the antithesis of TKD's focus.

For example, the notion that punching will become dominant.This seems to be in effect saying that the speaker either knows or believes that punching's far more effective than kicking, and that kicking needs sheltered, specialized rules to become in any way effective. (Makes me wonder why anyone bothers with TKD at all if this is in fact, true.)

IMO, it really just depends on the rule set. Setting kicks up so that they score higher than punches seems to keep the kicks in prominence well enough in ITF style free sparring. If nothing else, there's the focus on what's taught in class driving how it develops as well.
 
T

TKD USA

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Tigerwoman I am just asking if you saw who won in the competition today.
 
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gic102

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you guys are thinking olympic tkd is traditional tkd in action but this is what it exactly is not. Olympic tkd is more like exactly the opposite of boxing i.e. using only legs, and when you state that there's not enough action, instead of fighting they are in fact planning their strategy to use against their opponent or trying to read the opponent, remember the emphasis is on points not beating the opponent to a pulp especially in such a high scale tournament you dont want to do something you'll regret. Speaking of dangerous strikes to the head did anyone see that Austrian knock the other guy out cold with a spinning hook kick?
 

TigerWoman

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I went to class but my recorder didn't go - messed up somehow. But I got the stats.

Salazar Blanco/Mexico BRONZE vs Reyes/Spain (women feather)

Silva/Brazel vs Song/Korea BRONZE (men feather)

Nia Abdallah/USA SILVER vs Jang Ji/Korea GOLD (women feather)

Huang/Taipei SILVER vs Bonehkohal/Iran GOLD (men feather)

For Sat and Sun. results see:
http://www.nbcolympics.com/results/index.html

Click on the day and the gold medal on the calendar where TKD is.
TW
 

Han-Mi

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It's the sport version... TKD is not all like that. It is just so they have rules to govern the system. Kick boxing sounds more your style. I enjoyed it.
 

bignick

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Marginal said:
This argument's a popular one, and I've always found it peculiar. (Not to pick on you bignick, it's just a common view I've seen lurking about various MA boards) I find it strange just because it seems to operate on presumptions that are the antithesis of TKD's focus.

i was overexaggerating, trying to point how everyone talks about tkd is all kicks...i get frustrated...sometimes it seems like people will find something to pick on no matter what...that's what i was trying to get across...guess i didn't quite communicate as clearly as i thought i was...
 

CanuckMA

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TigerWoman said:
We're talking about Olympic Taekwondo and there are no kicks below the belt. We're not comparing other disciplines to TKD in this thread. TW

It was not about comparing styles. Someone said that if hand strikes to the head were allowed in Olympic TKD, it would end up looking like boxing. Kickboxing and Muay Thai both allow feet and hand strikes to the head and face, and neither looks like boxing. I believe that Olympic TKD the way it is practised right now is doing a great disservice to MA.
 
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Tkang_TKD

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CanuckMA said:
I believe that Olympic TKD the way it is practised right now is doing a great disservice to MA.
Would you agree that it is no more of a disservice to MA than Olympic Boxing is to Boxing?
 

Han-Mi

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Ya know, it is funny.I was arguing with someone last night and the person felt the need to tell me that so and so could whip me because SHE know how to box. I think it is funny that everyone gives so much credit to boxing when it has the same problem as Olympic TKD, and the same problem that people think all MAs have. They think that just because they understand boxing, it is the best way to learn to fight. The thing is, it is a sport, with the same amount of street fighting application as Olympic TKD. Let's see someone stand up after an olympic roundhouse flurry. Anyway, who cares, It's just a game.
 

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